“One of the few IRPT leaders to have escaped imprisonment is its chairman, Muhiddin Kabiri, who went into exile in 2015 … who maintained a persistently moderate stance in opposition, Kabiri is now wanted in Tajikistan on charges of terrorism. Given the obvious political motive for the campaign against the party and the government’s abuse of its members, it is astonishing that INTERPOL agreed to a Tajik request to put out a global “red notice” for his arrest.”61 John Heathershaw, Associate Professor in International Relations, University of Exeter b. Dogan Akhanli Dogan Akhanli is a German writer of Turkish origin, who fled Turkey and was granted asylum in Germany in the 1990s. Dogan is renowned for his writings critical of Turkey’s human rights record, and for advocating for the recognition of the Armenian genocide, a position strongly opposed by the Turkish state. In August 2017, Dogan was arrested whilst on holiday in Spain, reportedly on the basis of an INTERPOL Red Notice issued at the request of the Turkish authorities. Dogan had a public profile prior to his arrest, and INTERPOL could have easily found out that there was a history of politically motivated prosecutions against him.62 Dogan was eventually able to avoid “I am very glad that Spain has now released [Dogan Akhanli]… It is not right. We must not misuse international organisations like INTERPOL for such purposes”64 Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany 78. It is also clear that the NDTF will need continued and increased support and funding to carry out its activities properly. It is not known how many requests for Red Notices are reviewed by the NDTF, but this number is clearly in excess of the 13,000 new Red Notices issued each year, 65 assuming that a proportion of the Red Notice requests are refused as a result of the reviews. In addition, the NDTF also reviews Diffusions, which are issued at the rate of more than 22,000 per year.66 As well as reviewing alert requests, there are also over 47,000 Red Notices currently in circulation, the majority of which are likely to have been disseminated before the more stringent review procedures were introduced. These existing Red Notices will also need to be reviewed, further adding to the NDTF’s John Heathershaw and Edward Lemon, ‘After 25 years of independence, Tajikistan is a bastion of torture and repression’, The Conversation (7 September 2016) Available at: https://theconversation.com/after-25-years-of-independence-tajikistan-is-a-bastion-of-torture-and-repression-64945 62 Volker Hage and Daniel Steinvorth, ‘Thin Evidence: Trial of German-Turkish Author Slammed as ‘Revenge’, Der Spiegel (8 December 2010) Available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/thin-evidence-trial-of-german-turkish-author-slammed-as-revenge-a-733447.html 63 Deutsche Welle, ‘Spain releases Dogan Akhanli, German author detained on Turkish warrant’ (20 August 2017), Available at:http://www.dw.com/en/ spain-releases-dogan-akhanli-german-author-detained-on-turkish-warrant/a-40163753 64 Reuters, ‘Merkel attacks Turkey’s ‘misuse’ of Interpol warrants’ (20 August 2017), Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-turkey-election/ merkel-attacks-turkeys-misuse-of-interpol-warrants-idUSKCN1B00IP 65 INTERPOL, Annual Report 2016 66 INTERPOL, Annual Report 2015. It is unclear what proportion of these Diffusions are used to seek the location and arrest of wanted persons 67 PACE Report (n 50), para. 58-59 61 36 extradition to Turkey and was able to go back home after direct interventions from the German government.63 Turkey’s misuse of INTERPOL against Dogan was widely criticised, including by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.